Socrates never stopped asking questions, even unto his execution. The University of Austin is following suit with what all hope is a better fate. Socrates, who said “All I know is that I know nothing,” is a role model for Pano Kanelos, president of the new University of Austin. Socrates never stopped asking questions, even when the Athenian elite charged him with impiety and corrupting the youth of the city-state. “Socrates was very disagreeable,” says Michael Shellenberger, who will teach about politics, censorship, and free speech at the private university. “People hated him so much they de ..read more

Amid K–12’s culture clashes, I’m constantly struck by how often we seem to be talking past one another. On this count, I observed a conversation last year that’s stuck with me ever since. It was late, on a D.C. sidewalk, after the bar had closed on the last stragglers from AEI’s K–12 Working Group. The exchange took place between an influential education school professor and a leading parent activist. In response to a session earlier that day, they’d been arguing (heatedly, but respectfully) about anti-CRT laws. They were discussing the incidents relating to teacher politicking, of the sor ..read more

Dr. Carey Wright, the State Superintendent of Schools for Maryland, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Wright’s time as Mississippi’s state superintendent, as well as her current role in Maryland. Robert Pondiscio interviewed Dr. Wright in the Fall 2022 issue of Education Next. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or here on Education Next. — Education Next The post The Education Exchange: “It’s Not a Miracle. It’s the Result of a Lot of Hard Work.” appeared first on Education Next ..read more

When it comes to digital technology, educators and school systems haven’t historically been fleet of foot. But artificial intelligence is partially bucking the trend. Many teachers are embracing it, even as school systems follow form and are moving slowly, or barely at all. Among the myriad ways school systems can respond, there are two obvious poor choices. On one end of the spectrum, they could turn entirely away from AI—which districts like New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle initially moved to do. On the other, they could rush to use AI for its own sake rather than for a clear educ ..read more

Neville Chamberlain In the past few years, there’s been much talk about the need to teach “true history.” The intuition is a healthy one (even if it’s frequently used to justify teaching politicized caricatures of America the Awful). We should teach “true history,” in all its glory. Both the good and the bad. More importantly, though, we should convey the complexity of history that can prompt us to reexamine old assumptions, ask new questions, and look upon one another with greater understanding. Kevin Williamson recently offered a masterclass in this at The Dispatch. His subject? Neville Cham ..read more

Angela R. Watson,a senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and an assistant research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the launch of the Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or here on Education Next. — Education Next The post The Education Exchange: A Resource for Homeschoolers and the Policymakers who Support Them appeared first on Education Next ..read more

Abigail Shrier’s wildly popular new book, Bad Therapy, is one of the latest takes on the causes of the mental health crisis occurring among youth. Shrier’s diagnosis is that society’s obsession over kids’ feelings undermines their development, hindering their ability to manage the vicissitudes of life. This problem, she says, is largely due to contemporary approaches to psychotherapy, parenting, and schooling. One of the schooling practices she claims is particularly harmful is social and emotional learning, or SEL. SEL programs aim to teach students life skills like emotion and attention ..read more

A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation by Rachel Louise Martin Simon & Schuster, 2023, $30; 362 pages. As reviewed by Matthew Levey We know of the nine Black students who bravely enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in the fall of 1957, despite the Arkansas governor’s attempts to bar them. Many recall Norman Rockwell’s portrait of first-grader Ruby Bridges walking past a wall splattered with a tomato and a scribbled racial slur on her way to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. But the 1956 desegregation of Clinton H ..read more

Students occupy part of the campus at Columbia University on April 19, a day after the New York Police Department arrested over 100 pro-Palestine protesters. Columbia University canceled in-person classes yesterday after weekend protests that the Biden White House termed “unconscionable and dangerous.” The New York Police Department ultimately arrested more than a 100 protesters who’d been part of the unruly mob chanting “Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!” and had turned Columbia’s campus into something that looked like a makeshift homeless encampment. The chaos was striking bu ..read more

Patrick J. Wolf, a professor of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Wolf’s new research, which investigates the impact of private education on civic knowledge, skills and participation. “The Public Purposes of Private Education: a Civic Outcomes Meta-Analysis,” co-written with M. Danish Shakeel, Alison Heap Johnson, Mattie A. Harris and Sarah R. Morris, is available now at Educational Psychology Review. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or here on Education Next. — Education Next The post The Educat ..read more